(Newser) – The elite special forces team that took down Osama bin Laden is getting lots of credit, but the Sun reminds us that a four-legged member of the team helped, too. One bomb-sniffing dog, probably a German shepherd or Belgian Malinois, took part in the raid. It likely dropped out of a military chopper onto bin Laden’s compound strapped to a human handler and protected with armor, then sniffed for booby-traps in the room-by-room raid.

Dogs have been playing a bigger role in special ops missions overseas, notes the Sun. Some wearing oxygen masks get dropped into hostile environments from planes to seek out insurgents and attack anyone with a weapon. They also have cameras strapped to their heads that beam back live images to troops. See the Dogster blog for a photo of what a special ops “hero dog” looks like.

….

Now let me ask you a question. Do you think a cat would ever go to a war? Do you think that fat tabby you saw on youtube sitting in a box chasing a feather would ever jump out of plane so that it could sink its titanium teeth into a terrorist? Do you think that dumb kitten jumping at the laser beam would be able to sniff out a bomb? Not a fucking chance in hell. These dogs right here are the pinnacle of the animal kingdom. I don’t care if they aren’t technically on the top of the food chain because they are in my eyes. Loyal, trustworthy, and bad to the bone. Macho and obedient. Fucking dog soldiers. Badass.

PS
And I know this isn’t technically a macho “man” but lets face it, these dogs are cooler and worth more to society than 99.9% of us.

h/t fat bastard